I personally felt when I read The Game of School, I was offended at first. Never had I ever looked at school and my education as a game. The way I imagined the author thinking of school as a game was as a game board, where each grade was an advancement space and your work you did was equivalent to the roll of a die. Of course I know that there are students who are just doing enough to get by, but I feel as if this article is based too much on those types of students, and not the students and teachers who see learning as an experience and their passion.
However, as I continued to read, I realized that indeed, sometimes teachers give out "busy work" as homework. Are they playing a game with us? Are they just doing what they are required to do? Or are they giving us tasks to further our education? I would not go as far as to suggest those children who work their way around their homework by doing group work after school as "players of the game," but more so students who are smart enough to manage their time and work. I see nothing wrong with sharing ideas and working together on homework assignments, especially if it is just an extension of what has been completed in class.
Trying to downplay education as a game offends me. Education is not a game, it sets you up for either a successful or unsuccessful life. Even though I read over the excerpt a few times, I did not understand his reasoning any better than the first time I read it. Too much opinion, not enough solution to his posed problem.
I personally felt when I read The Game of School, I was offended at first. Never had I ever looked at school and my education as a game. The way I imagined the author thinking of school as a game was as a game board, where each grade was an advancement space and your work you did was equivalent to the roll of a die. Of course I know that there are students who are just doing enough to get by, but I feel as if this article is based too much on those types of students, and not the students and teachers who see learning as an experience and their passion.
However, as I continued to read, I realized that indeed, sometimes teachers give out "busy work" as homework. Are they playing a game with us? Are they just doing what they are required to do? Or are they giving us tasks to further our education? I would not go as far as to suggest those children who work their way around their homework by doing group work after school as "players of the game," but more so students who are smart enough to manage their time and work. I see nothing wrong with sharing ideas and working together on homework assignments, especially if it is just an extension of what has been completed in class.
Trying to downplay education as a game offends me. Education is not a game, it sets you up for either a successful or unsuccessful life. Even though I read over the excerpt a few times, I did not understand his reasoning any better than the first time I read it. Too much opinion, not enough solution to his posed problem.